The sky continues to fall. Full story at 11.

[hummingwolf]

For those of you who have been either living under a rock or out having lives recently, there are some changes to LiveJournal you should know about.

First, there is a new content flagging feature. No matter what your settings for anything else on LiveJournal have been, you will want to visit your settings page, go down to the section for "Adult content options," and pick something. You can rate your journal if you like, or you can leave it alone--this option is (currently) (supposed to be) voluntary. If you are unable to select certain options, make sure you have your birthdate set to something (anything!) over 18.

For information on both your ability to rate content on your own journal, and the ability of different people to flag content on journals they do not own, see this post and this post in lj_biz.

Next: LiveJournal has been sold to a Russian company called SUP (pronounced "soup"). Many people, knowing something about the corruption that's endemic to Russia, are a bit concerned about this, even though the new LiveJournal, Inc. is located in California and is supposed to be governed by U.S. law. Other people, somewhat less informed about what's been going on in Russia, are afraid that LJ's servers will now be located behind the Iron Curtain. (Hint: There has been no Iron Curtain since the 1980s, dudes. Hate Putin's government all you like, but pick a new metaphor.)

This thread should prove very useful for us all.

Brad's reaction.

An old Wired news article about SUP's involvement with LJ in Russia.

Collection of more links here from stewardess.

Note: If you're coming to the game this late, all of the "In Soviet Russia..." jokes have already been made. Better luck next time.

Now I have a question: If it is indeed now going to be dangerous to criticize and/or make fun of Vladimir Putin on this site, which one of the following will get me into more trouble?

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

the mash-up photos are creepy, for sure.

i was stunned by the news in my inbox this a.m. (that e-mail from LJ). while i've wasted no love on 6A, the thought of LJ belonging to a russian company startled me. i'm one of those who are reassured somewhat by brad fitz's coming back on board. (wonder what the inside skinny is on his leaving during 6A's tenure.)

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I hope Brad joined up again because he thinks the sale will benefit the community, not just because SUP have offered him large quantities of drama-grade vodka!

[bluegreen17]

thanks for the info!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[helen99.livejournal.com]

> Now I have a question: If it is indeed now going to be dangerous to
> criticize and/or make fun of Vladimir Putin on this site, which one of the
> following will get me into more trouble?
> The faces of Vladimir Putin and George Bush combined together
> Vladimir Putin's Face Combined with Monkey

The server was gone when I tried to view the pics. I'll check back. Maybe they got into trouble...

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Given how many people have used morphthing.com to combine George W. Bush and Osama Bin Ladin, I don't think a little bit of Putin-mockery is going to be a problem for them. At least I hope not!

[sophy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the links - I'd seen some of them but not all of them, yet! Information is power. Or, at least, it would be if I weren't so lazy. But information is still interesting, either way!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Information is power. Or, at least, it would be if I weren't so lazy.

Heh. I think I know what you mean. In my case, collecting information was largely a way to distract myself from the fact that I couldn't sleep anyway!