(no subject)

[pne]

Why, oh why is there so much drama on LiveJournal?

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

The entire 'friend-of' thing, for example, that's featured in the past few news entries and assorted lj_biz ones.

Reading the comments makes my head spin, since I tend to be in the "so what? just because they friend you doesn't give them any power over you, so get over it, it's really not a big deal" camp.

As for the "don't want to be associated with them in any way, shape, or form": people should know that what's on your "Friend-of" list is not under your control. If someone spray-paints your car with offensive graffiti, are you "associated" with the vandal? Same thing, IMO. (And as someone pointed out, hiding your friends list doesn't mean nobody can find out that offensivename has friended you, since paid users can use the directory. But, er, your point is? So they friended you.)

Maybe everyone should just quite LiveJournal so they won't be "associated" with serial adders, trolls, and people writing their journal in 13-year-old blinking AOLese.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

Heh. My favorite argument is "They're invading my privacy!!"

Dolts.

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

If someone spray-paints your car with offensive graffiti, are you "associated" with the vandal?

You're not associated... but would you reread your anaology there? It quite aptly displays our point.

graffiti on your car

[pne.livejournal.com]

It was the first thing that came to mind but doesn't convey how I see the situation.

Do you feel your userinfo page is 'vandalised' if offensivename friends you and your userinfo page says so? I think that's one of the bits I don't understand, a bit I feel is hyped way out of proportion.

Re: graffiti on your car

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

I don't feel vandalized. I feel that the system is being abused. And it is. These users make journals solely for the harrassment of others, and do it in such a fashion that LJ Abuse will refuse to address the issue when it's put before them.

Honestly, I feel that something should be done about the problem*, instead of just letting us remove people from our friend-of list, but I'll settle for being able to delete them off my user info. Maybe they'll get the hint, y'know?

*Wherein the problem is the abuse that's going on, not aesthetics.

harassment

[pne.livejournal.com]

These users make journals solely for the harrassment of others

and they do so because people feel harassed simply by being on someone's friends list.

Encouraging people to trash a certain user is not cool, but I think that friending someone should be harmless.

I feel that something should be done about the problem

I feel that part of the problem is people feeling upset just because someone friended them. Regardless of their username. If friending them is all they've done, I can understand when the Abuse Team refuses to get involved.

I think I can kind of understand that some people feel upset by this (even though I don't think it's worth it), but I'm not sure how much effect this should have on policies.

Re: harassment

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* there are peole who friend me that I don't friend back. I don't care. They aren't inviting harrassment down on my journal.

Frankly, I think friend's only entrie should be open for view by LJ abuse if there's a report filed. Most responses are still going to be, "this isn't abuse," but it would stop these fucktards that do abuse the system from continuing.

Re: harassment

[pne.livejournal.com]

there are peole who friend me that I don't friend back. I don't care.

Incidentally, I'm curious now why you decided to friend me back. (As I said at the time, I appreciate the trust.)

Or, how do you decide whom you friend back and whom you don't? For example, do you usually friend back anyone unless you have a reason not to, or do you usually friend nobody back unless you have a reason to do so?

Frankly, I think friend's only entrie should be open for view by LJ abuse if there's a report filed.

I can imagine that it would help their investigations in a number of cases, but I don't have any experiences of my own. (You could ask fweebles, for example, who's commented on this entry - he's on the Abuse Team.)

I know that there's a priv that allows you to view any entry even if it's protected but (a) it's only given to very few people, (b) every use of this priv is logged, and (c) someone I trust told me that this priv is used very rarely. (I think she has that priv but I'm not certain. She's a LiveJournal employee, FWIW - I think the only ones who have this priv are also employees.) I guess Abuse people can usually work on cases even without this.

Re: graffiti on your car

[fweebles.livejournal.com]

Yep. And if people wouldn't throw such a fit about it, people wouldn't do it any more.

This is why I was against changing the way friends/friend-ofs worked, because it's giving into the whiners. But, I must say, Brad's come up with an elegant solution this time, that I can live with.