...there are squirrels in my head...

* LJ Advisory Council

Winner of the election: legomymalfoy!
I think her election is a sign of the power of fandom on LJ.

I am not sure the election was a success. We had a grand total of 25875 votes cast, which is barely representative of LJ membership. There are far too many people commenting in the latest news post saying, "What election?" As I just commented elsewhere, Yahoo Groups and Myspace do much better jobs of informing their users about site-related news. LJ staff has yet again been silent in the face of questions from its users, and I find that shameful.

Should role-playing accounts have been allowed to vote in this election? I think that the rules of this election did not say they *couldn't*. As much as I cannot relate to one person having 200 accounts for this purpose, if we are looking at this as if shareholders were voting, then by all means allow each person's account to have a vote. If, on the other hand, the election was supposed to be a one person/one vote poll - which is what I believe was the original intent of the poll - the rules should have stated as such and there should have been more moderators working to make sure this was happening.

My experience working on an association's nomination committee taught me that if there is a loophole in an electoral process, people are going to find it. The burden of making sure the election is a fair one falls squarely on the shoulders of the folks in charge, not the folks voting. I am extremely disappointed in the LJ Staff for choosing to remain silent about the varied shenanigans surrounding this election, as it would not have taken much to have quelled the users' concerns regarding who could vote. (Note I say disappointed and not surprised.)

Personally, I am not sure that LMM will not have a conflict of interests in holding this position as well as being a member of LJ Abuse. She addresses that here, however.

All that said...again, congrats to the winner, thank you to those who voted, and here's hoping for better things to come on LJ.

* New changes posted here!
Issues addressed include an expanded Hate Speech policy, tweaking of the Adult Content policy, and a removal of the Non-Pornographic Image policy.

Issues still not addressed, pending further research include how to deal with communities that are pro-self-abuse (example: pro-eating disoroder communities.)

This is mostly welcome progress.
...And yet, rape_an_ljer continues to exist, to which I say WTF?

* Harvey Korman

Harvey Korman passed away yesterday from heart-related issues. I don't really have the right words to say what I'm thinking/feeling. Mr Korman was an element in much of what I watched as a child - really, has any skit show come close to being as genius as The Carol Burnett Show? - and the following two links summarize why I will miss Mr Korman so much.

The Carol Burnett Show:



The Muppet Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSolu7QA9m4
(Muppets, explosions, Harvey with a whip, and a reference to Balzac!)

In the drama that has become the Advisory Council Election, LJ staff is being rather reticent to give up much information about the purported threats against candidates.

http://cambler.livejournal.com/950060.html

Meanwhile, the polls are still open, and voter turnout is still incredibly light.
Vote!
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/

Good info from a fannish perspective about the candidates here:
http://community.livejournal.com/metafandom/

Current vote count (going off of Poll #1): 14,081 LJers have voted.

As of right now, 150 thousand LJs have been updated in the past 24 hours.

The comparison of those two numbers is beyond disappointing.

We need to get more of LJ membership involved in this election.
Because if they were, the argument about this being a cult of personality election, or the 'sockpuppet vote' issue? These would not be issues.

If you haven't voted?
Please do so!

And encourage others to do so.
This election, this council position, is a chance for the users of LJ to have a voice on the Advisory Council. Don't throw it away.

The most important thing you can do besides vote is to pass this along and make sure that everyone else passes it along.

Consider this the most important Meme LJ has ever had.

Go vote!
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/

(In the words of lordandrei: The most important thing you can do besides vote is to pass this along and make sure that everyone else passes it along.

Consider this the most important Meme LJ has ever had.

So yeah...I'll be posting about this Every. Single. Day. until the polls close. Because it's THAT important.)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about:
The purpose of the Advisory Board
The appointed members and the mandate

Candidates I Support:

rm - Info about her candidacy here.
lordandrei - Info about his candidacy here.
squeaky19 - info about his candidacy here.

(Please note: the above links are completely work appropriate, which cannot be said for some of the platform posts made by other candidates. Click with caution, folks.)

My reasons for supporting these candidates are explained very well in the links I listed above.
Sadly, the election is only for one person, as I feel all three of these candidates would be an amazing asset to the Advisory Council.

rm has already been intelligently vocal about addressing the varied issues that have come up around the management of LJ over the past year or so. She is a published author, active in fandom, an Early Adopter, maintains several LJs of varied account types...I have absolute confidence in her ability to understand the business aspects of LJ management as well as the ability to represent the vast majority of LJ users. Her varied posts in LJ management communities over time have shown she's able to analyze and address complicated issues, as well as to help bring about change. I can't say enough how much I believe she can make a difference. (Descriptions of varied issues that lead me to believe this is important can be found here.)

lordandrei also knows the history and intricacies of LJ membership. He has shown himself to be level-headed, intelligent, and - as he self-describes - a 'typical' user. He also has helped develop LJ clients such as the one I'm using right now, and so there is a technical aspect to his candidacy that I highly approve of. I think he would bring much in the realm of common sense to the council.

squeaky19 is the owner of InsaneJournal, another blogging site that uses the same open source software as LJ. His contribution to the council would, I think, help bring needed improvements to the open source engine. Also, he has an understanding of the business aspects that could be very useful to the council.

These three people have shown an ongoing commitment to the improvement of LJ as a company and as a community. They have shown themselves over and over again to be intelligent, insightful people - they are running for the council because they want to make a difference.

I know there are people reading this post, right now, that do not intend to vote because they don't think it'll make a difference. However, this Advisory Council is a chance for us, the users and community members of LJ, to put someone into a position of influence, to help make LJ a place we want to continue to support.

Thoughts from current Advisory Council members about why this matters so much can be found here.

I hope you vote.
And I hope you can find, in this list of candidates, someone that you feel is taking this chance seriously, someone that will best represent you and your interests.

If you are voting from a work place or public computer, you may not wish to read the comments to the poll, as some of what is being shared there is NSFW.

ETA:
Do not assume that the winner of the election is already a done deal. As of late last night, legomymalfoy took the lead in the race!

* Robert Lynn Asprin, author of the Myth Adventures series and co-author of the fabulous Thieves World series, has passed away. :(

Not much info available yet - he passed away this morning, very unexpectedly. Watch this space for more details...and if you're planning on attending MarCon this weekend...well, be gentle with the con committee, 'kay?

* LJ Advisory Council

Go vote!
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_election_en/

(In the words of lordandrei: The most important thing you can do besides vote is to pass this along and make sure that everyone else passes it along.

Consider this the most important Meme LJ has ever had.)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about:
The purpose of the Advisory Board
The appointed members and the mandate

Candidates I Support:

rm - Info about her candidacy here.
lordandrei - Info about his candidacy here.
squeaky19 - info about his candidacy here.

(Please note: the above links are completely work appropriate, which cannot be said for some of the platform posts made by other candidates. Click with caution, folks.)

My reasons for supporting these candidates are explained very well in the links I listed above.
Sadly, the election is only for one person, as I feel all three of these candidates would be an amazing asset to the Advisory Council.

rm has already been intelligently vocal about addressing the varied issues that have come up around the management of LJ over the past year or so. She is a published author, active in fandom, an Early Adopter, maintains several LJs of varied account types...I have absolute confidence in her ability to understand the business aspects of LJ management as well as the ability to represent the vast majority of LJ users. Her varied posts in LJ management communities over time have shown she's able to analyze and address complicated issues, as well as to help bring about change. I can't say enough how much I believe she can make a difference. (Descriptions of varied issues that lead me to believe this is important can be found here.)

lordandrei also knows the history and intricacies of LJ membership. He has shown himself to be level-headed, intelligent, and - as he self-describes - a 'typical' user. He also has helped develop LJ clients such as the one I'm using right now, and so there is a technical aspect to his candidacy that I highly approve of. I think he would bring much in the realm of common sense to the council.

squeaky19 is the owner of InsaneJournal, another blogging site that uses the same open source software as LJ. His contribution to the council would, I think, help bring needed improvements to the open source engine. Also, he has an understanding of the business aspects that could be very useful to the council.

These three people have shown an ongoing commitment to the improvement of LJ as a company and as a community. They have shown themselves over and over again to be intelligent, insightful people - they are running for the council because they want to make a difference.

I know there are people reading this post, right now, that do not intend to vote because they don't think it'll make a difference. However, this Advisory Council is a chance for us, the users and community members of LJ, to put someone into a position of influence, to help make LJ a place we want to continue to support.

Thoughts from current Advisory Council members about why this matters so much can be found here.

I hope you vote.
And I hope you can find, in this list of candidates, someone that you feel is taking this chance seriously, someone that will best represent you and your interests.

ETA:
If you are voting from a work place or public computer, you may not wish to read the comments to the poll, as some of what is being shared there is NSFW.

Voting poll will be posted at 3PM PDT (about 6PM EDT), per this post.

boosting the signal - please feel free to do the same!

Do you run an LJ community that has been or could be directly affected by unclear TOS on freedom of speech issues (think: political, religious, abuse survivors, creative, academic, fannish, queer, kink, poly, adult lifestyle)?

Do you run an LJ community that has been or could be affected by sloppy attempts on LJ/SUPs part to massage LJ's image (think: mental health/illness, abuse survivors, fannish, queer, kink, poly, adult lifestyle)?

Do you run an LJ community whose users have accessibility issues with the site (those with vision impairments, etc.)?

Do you run a community on any topic whatsoever whose users would be interested in discussion the LJ Advisory Board elections?

If so, I'd like the opportunity to hear the concerns of your users and talk a bit about where I stand on those issues. I promise to make only a single post to talk about the election (unless invited to do otherwise) and my candidacy and not spam the community or its users in any way.

If you'd be willing to let me post in those communities please let me know here or email me at racheline @ gmail dot com. If you're not a community maintainer, but have ties to a community maintainer and want to broach this issue with them, I'd appreciate it.

As the nomination process continues, a few words:

A lot of people have (expectedly) offered themselves up as candidates for the council.

When you vote - if you vote - please consider who would be an asset on the council. Don't vote based on popularity; vote with an eye cast to your candidate's history on LJ, and her or his awareness of the varied issues that have arisen over the years. Think of how your candidate has reacted. Do you truly feel your candidate is going to be an effective voice?

I do not lightly say that I feel rm is the kind of person we very much need on the LJ Advisory Council - click here for one more compellling reason why I feel this way.

(If you feel the same, you can still support her nomination here.)

And also, to borrow her words:

ljunited was founded in reaction to LJ's many broken promises to the userbase and after some tough questions and good discussion they've endorsed my candidacy for the LJ Advisory Board.

One of our big concerns right now is that the issues oriented candidates may split the votes amongst themselves while folks who are very popular or have candidacies that don't address issues people find stressful and emotional walk away with it. We are trying to work together to make sure this doesn't happen, and whatever happens with the election want to make sure we create a unified block to speak out as the userbase relationship with LJ/SUP moves forward.

So, I'd encourage all of you to joinljunited for the election and beyond. Also, squeaky19 has just joined us. He's the fellow who runs IJ, and has a lot to say to those of us with concerns about the status of LJ's code, and open source and journal migration issues."

More info about ljunited here.

We need to do more than gripe about management's bad decisions. Ahead of us are some exciting opportunities to do more than shake our heads, complain, and leave. Let's take advantage of the chance.