The Great LiveJournal Content Strike of 2008

Well, at least they'll accomplish something.

Fighting for LJers' rights to... uh... have "slash" listed as a popular interest?

The Great LiveJournal Content Strike of 2008, referred to by its participants as The Content Strike or 3/21, is a protest being made by the more histrionic elements of LiveJournal's userbase, in response to a few policy changes SUP has instituted since buying LiveJournal. It all started when SUP eliminated Basic accounts, followed by a series of news posts not clarifying the changes, followed again by the blocking of certain interests on the popular interests page. DISREGARD THAT, IT WAS A TECHNICAL ERROR.

	“	MLK took action, these LJers are taking action, it's a step towards something.	„
	—furry

The Road to Drama also cox

March 13, 2008 - 100-Day Anniversary From Hell

Fact.

• A news post announcing the 100-day anniversary of SUP's acquisition of LiveJournal is made.
• Users notice they are no longer capable of making Basic accounts. The first drama bomb lands.
• VP of Product Development jasonshellen quickly wades into the unwashed masses of fandom and proceeds to tell them that the changes were made so that the average LiveJournal user could understand the account creation process.
• VP of Product Development jasonshellen quickly turns to complaining about personal attacks made against him in the resulting clusterfuck.

	“	From a product perspective it was more about creating a new registration process that was easier for new users to understand.	„
	—jasonshellen, talking down to LJ users for great justice

• Somewhere in the mess leah_lightwing admits to owning 70+ LiveJournal accounts. Not entirely relevant, but still lol.
• Brad gives his thoughts on the matter, claiming that he wasn't consulted prior to the elimination of the accounts. It is expected that fandom will kill him a second time. Lulzy moments include njyoder bringing up the LiveJournal social contract in an effort to argue against advertising, and everyone else making remarks about In Soviet Russia... and the KGB.

March 14, 2008 - Clarifications

Anton Nosik does, in fact, like Mudkips.

• theljstaff makes a second post to the News feed in an effort to clarify their new policy, only to ramble on and not actually say anything. Enraged furries rush to the News feed to post cat macros in droves. The second drama bomb lands.
• At least 100 LiveJournal users migrate to InsaneJournal. Still, people fail to notice.
• Several users all post the same link to the Russian news site CNews containing a poorly-translated interview with SUP "head of blog" department Anton Nosik.

	“	We do not consider it necessary to inform those, who have not opened a basic account during 9 years of LiveJournal’s existence, that there is no such an opportunity any longer.	„
	—Anton Nosik, displaying his immense capacity to care

March 15-18th, 2008 - Interests Denied

Oh for fuck's sake.

This was posted at least 100 times to the News feed.

Death threats!

Fact: Capitalist policies are a Communist product.

• Enraged by the marketing practices enacted by SUP, users continue to flounce in record numbers. Not satisfied with going quietly, most decide to make a scene on their way out.
• As one clusterfuck begins to die out, another one begins when InsaneJournal user stewardess posts a public entry with a table showing a list of entries censored on LiveJournal's Popular Interests page. The third drama bomb lands.
• Attacks on LiveJournal's sexuality and lack of respect for fandoms begin en masse, alongside talks about the beginnings of a possible "content strike."
• And, of course, it isn't long before a community devoted to the technical error is formed.
• Without a second word, SUP backpedals faster than Mind of Mencia in a room full of Mexicans and removes the filter on the censored interests.
• LJ staffer marta proceeds to inform everyone that the blocked interests were the result of a technical problem, only to be bombarded with demands for an apology and theories about what happened from qualified experts.
• To add insult to injury, Anton Nosik once again speaks out against fandoms in another interview. Inquisitive individuals run choice quotes through BabelFish and quickly take offense at the result.
• darkrosetiger posts an entry with a full translation of the interview, taking note of Nosik's understanding of the situation. Responses include insults and death threats.

	“	The audience of LJ is divided into 3 groups. There is the silent majority, which uses LJ for their own needs and is indifferent to who, when and with what money made such a resource and supports it. There are the positive minority (7-10 percent in the Russian LJ), these people like LJ, they consider it useful and want it to develop further. They help us, including constructive criticism, thanks to which we correct our mistakes. And there is the third category. They endlessly, during the entire existence of LJ promote lour initiatives, whose only purpose is to bring harm to LJ, its founders, their goal is to criticize, destabilize and ruin our reputation. They are usually motivated by wanting to attract attention to themselves. And they are successful every time.	„
	—Anton Nosik, SUP's head of blog department

• Despite all of this, one user actually posts a positive comment only to get jumped by several people with butthurt, which would later be mentioned in stupid_free

March 16-20th, 2008 - The Strike is Declared

Bitches don't know about beckyzoole's protest.

• Pagan Jew beckyzoole unilaterally declares a boycott. The announcement is posted to communities all over the internet, most of which cover a wide range of unrelated topics like politics and baking. Like with Strikethrough, a whole new set of icons are made.
• Remarkably sane LJ users begin to question the idea of a content strike, noting that it would make more sense for fandom to crapflood LJ's servers with crap entries and voice posts and strain bandwidth. Fandom, not noted for its sanity, ignored the suggestion and plans to go ahead with the non-posts.
• Rumors on the internets about Russian Anti-Semites joining the protest begin circulating on the basis that Anton Nosik is an Jew. However, some argue that these rumors are patently false, as Russian Anti-Semites will be occupied with something else on the 21st.

How you could have helped (if you actually cared)

The only good comment in this entire mess.

• If you or your friends have an account back from when you were in middle school, log in and post!
• Post original content in all of the fandom journals you can find on 3/21!
• Upgrade all of your accounts to Plus accounts!
• Be certain to crapflood any one of these fine LJ communities in the series.
• BONUS: Post copypasta for added lulz.

The Aftermath

This article needs moar counter-strike content and lulz. You can help by adding moar counter-strike content and lulz.

As of 2am UTC 3-22-08, the Great LiveJournal Content Strike of 2008 has proven itself to be an epic failure.

what

• Lulz-worthy LiveJournal group fbr_trash decided to help with the anti-furry and child pornography strike by allowing members to post whatever crap they felt needed to be posted... the community was updated 2,195 times during the strike. Many lulz were had. Rickrolls were performed, and furries were trashed.
• Regular lolcow sf_drama had an Off-Topic Tuesday-like celebration of the strike, with at least 100 posts about very interesting topics.
• Pranksters spammed nebris' LiveJournal before getting banned.
• Literally over 9000 posts were made to statements.
• beckytool's LiveJournal was overrun by responsible citizens during the strike.

the only time a CCCC-combo is fine too in indiefucks

Global Reaction

India joined an international chorus of calls for dialog yesterday after pro-basic accounts protests in cyberspace spilled over into street violence, while Japan urged _b0st0n_snark to consider the implications for the blogosphere.

International condemnation of LiveJournal Inc.'s action was muted.

LiveJournal's peak user community, yiffexchange, was mostly shut down last Thursday, two days after bipolypagangeek security forces crushed days of protests. theljstaff said only 10 people were killed, but the blogosphere's government-in-exile, Frank the Goat, said the death toll was closer to Over 9000.

The spiritual leader of LiveJournal and Nobel peace laureate who fled to India in 2007, Brad Fitzpatrick, said that the international community had the “moral responsibility” to remind LiveJournal Inc. to be a good host for emo, morbid self-absorption and "irony", but added that LiveJournal deserved to sell all your dox.

LiveJournal Inc. has declared a “people’s war” of security and propaganda against support for the Brad, underlining that it will not heed calls from around the globe for a lenient response to the strike.

See Also

• The Great LiveJournal Strikethrough of 2007
• The Great LiveJournal Buyout of 2007
• The Great LJ Outage Of 2006
• The Russian LJ Abuse Conspiracy

The Great LiveJournal Content Strike of 2008 is part of a series on LiveJournal Visit the LiveJournal Portal for complete coverage.

Featured article March 21, 2008
Preceded by SUPERCOOLWILLOW	The Great LiveJournal Content Strike of 2008	Succeeded by I go chop your dollar