Uh-oh, I think you are the one who will push me across the line into meta.
It's probably a complete coincidence that all this censorship business came so closely on the heels of the FanLib/boy/girl/money/co-op flap, but I think it's a continuum. A big part of what has come out of the cathexys/Jenkins stuff is fundamental discussion about fandom as a grassroots, cooperative, non-monetarized community that remains free ideologically because it remains free economically. Flying under the radar is what keeps fandom from becoming beholden to TPTB; it's essentially a chaotic/entropic open source ethos.
So all the LJ/6A IPA stuff and should fans buy shares, etc., is fundamentally antithetical to that open source model. Fans as shareholders essentially creates a hierarchy that has not previously existed between older, wealthier fans and younger entry-level fans. It suggests the need for an organization to govern proxy voting and represent disparate fandoms as a bloc. It's all about The Man, and fandom is so not about The Man. (And the initial proposal came from my best friend, which just shows that opposites attract, I guess.)
So, erm, I agree with you that there is not much point switching service providers, since fans cannot control the media without giving up some intrinsic aspects of their fannish souls. Let's all be lazy and stick with LJ.
(Yup, this was the meta post. Thank goodness most of this flap took place while I was on vacation.)
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It's probably a complete coincidence that all this censorship business came so closely on the heels of the FanLib/boy/girl/money/co-op flap, but I think it's a continuum. A big part of what has come out of the
So all the LJ/6A IPA stuff and should fans buy shares, etc., is fundamentally antithetical to that open source model. Fans as shareholders essentially creates a hierarchy that has not previously existed between older, wealthier fans and younger entry-level fans. It suggests the need for an organization to govern proxy voting and represent disparate fandoms as a bloc. It's all about The Man, and fandom is so not about The Man. (And the initial proposal came from my best friend, which just shows that opposites attract, I guess.)
So, erm, I agree with you that there is not much point switching service providers, since fans cannot control the media without giving up some intrinsic aspects of their fannish souls. Let's all be lazy and stick with LJ.
(Yup, this was the meta post. Thank goodness most of this flap took place while I was on vacation.)