I'm not going anywhere.

I have my journal backed up, hell, I have a backup journal sitting over at Journalfen. I backed up my main priority, DE. I'll be backing up the other assorted communities/writing journals I have laying around shortly. It's things I should have done long ago. I'll be looking into that dual-posting program thing, because that sounds nifty.

But for right now, I don't want to leave. I've done what I can to protect myself and what I care about. I think that some of these things are scary, yes. I'll have to decide in November whether or not I want to send another check to LJ - I can happily customize my journal without a paid account, I'll just miss my icons and photos but depending on the storm, it may be worth the sacrifice.

I refuse to panic. Livejournal has been my home since February of 2004 and I will not run yet. I still have several months left of paid time, and I intend to fucking use them. I'm sure, if I'm forced to relocate, that I'll find the people who are important to me again, and the people who care to read my journal will find me as well. For right now, though? *shrug* I've battened down the hatches.

So let me know where you're going, folks, if you choose to set sail for good - I'll keep a weather eye out for you. But at least until November, I'll still be here.

Also, I don't see what the big effing deal is about the "Report Abuse" button. They've had that on DeviantArt since the very beginning, and those folks are doing just fine, and nobody complains about it that I've seen. Of course there's Dudley Do-Rights and just plain asshats who'll press it for fun. Thing is? dA has a similar policy on content, except theirs extends to explicit depictions of ANY kind, regardless of flavor. You may not get tossed, but you'll certainly get your picture deleted and a severe warning. Do it on a regular basis and you probably will get tossed.

I have a problem with the meta-mods who decide to TOS someone just because they find it in poor taste. Unfortunately, because LJ servers are located in America, they have to bend to the will of American obscenity laws, which are sort of vague anyway. "I know it when I see it," is pretty much the law; in more detail: pretty much if the public as a whole would find it in prurient taste. In these days of evangelical overload and congressmen gliding into office on their golden bibles, I'm pretty sure the 'public as a whole' would turn a jaundiced eye to many of the things that have been cited as reasons to TOS. I wish Livejournal's servers were located somewhere else.

I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm not saying it's fair. I'm just saying. The internet is one of the last vestiges of free speech only because it's vast and global, giving lie to the fallacy that you can make a mark on the Net and yet still be completely anonymous. I think, as a whole, we've all been complacent in our certainty that we'll be Internet-famous within our circles but still anonymous to LJ. It's not true. Many of our journals can probably be tracked via Google and other search engines - I know mine certainly can. Some of our entries may be linked at del.icio.us, some of them may be linked at other journal sites. The thing is, we're visible. If you hung out at DE around the time that we discovered Omega Ventures, you damn well know it can even happen by accident.

LJ is a business, unfortunately, run by a corporation more interested in making a profit because that's how they keep LJ running. That profit comes partially of our paid accounts, but I think that since 6A has branched out to Vox, Typepad, etc., they don't specifically need us anymore. That profit comes largely of good customer service - which they're really failing at right now with respect to us - but there's probably enough people on LJ who use it for purposes that don't fall within any gray area of the TOS to make the loss of fandom a small sacrifice.

Part of the reason I refuse to switch to another service is that Livejournal has its outages yes, but. Their service has been far better and more reliable than Journalfen, doesn't shove the ads down your throat like Greatestjournal, and as an art community doesn't have nearly the downtime and short-outs of deviantArt, not to mention Elfwood, which is probably down again as we speak.

I honestly don't expect other journaling sites to survive, long-term. Deadjournal is still limping along, but you have no option of free service there and the place is comparatively tiny. What happens when everyone starts jumping to other sites? Server overloads. Suddenly they need money to upgrade their small server banks, which means they need to find some money, which means paid accounts hike up in price, nobody can join without a paid account (a la Deadjournal) or they sell out to a bigger company to afford the upgrades.

And then you have Livejournal, and deviantArt, all over again.

Like I said. I'll see, come November.

Not that I've been spectacularly active there, anyway, but I'm moving on. There's other, smaller communities that have been neglected, and could use the attention, such as it is. The flux of managerial staff has me a bit concerned, to say the least, and while there's good content at that community and likely always will be, I'd just prefer not to be a part of it anymore.

So ta, ptdc. You gave me some nice memories.

All right. All right all right all right. I GET that some people have nothing to do with yaoi/yuri 'shipping. I can respect that - after all, it does take particular tastes and some pretty deep insight to look past the normal heterosexual relationships that are stressed. It's a challenge, and I love a good challenge - and I'm tired of fluffy anime chicks (note: Mai...does not apply in the 'fluffy' category.)

But get this. Someone cut out all the 'yaoi' and 'yuri' and 'threesome' pairings from a 'ship list they posted, because they didn't like them. I'm not naming names - I would, but considering, I really don't want a lecture from said person. Flames do no good. General Rants, however, make us feel better.

And yet...they left incest 'shippings in there. Like Shizuka and Jonouchi. Am I the only one who finds this really ironic? Love between two men or two women is such a terrible bore (and wrong, if you ask them...) but incest is all righty-dighty just because it's hetero? Where, oh where did we go wrong? ;_;

-~-

Ah...and a survey for my Yu-Gi-Oh! Love.

1)Do you remember your first reaction to Yu gi oh? Yes.
2)What was it? That's...interesting hair...
3)What was your very first episode? Para and Dox Part Deux
4)Favorite character when you started watching full time? Oh God, please, don't make me whip out the Jonouchi fanart...
5)Favorite Moment up to now? Like you have to ask? Sweaty boypile on Jonouchi's bed.
6)Least Favorite Moment Up till now? When Honda ended up as a monkey. Cheap, anyone?
7)Second Favorite Moment?
Honda: "Why do I have the sudden urge to yell "BINGO"?"
Ryuuji: "Go ahead and say it. I'll laugh."

And then again...Evil Marik's duel with Yami Bakura/Marik (Because the dub version is actually funny as hell toward the end.)
8)Second Worst Moment up till now? Anything with Espa Roba in it
9)Least favorite character up to now? Noa Kaiba
10)Character that's grown on you the most? Hiroto Honda. From being the beanball to my hottie. *smirk*
11)Secondary favorite? Ryuuji Otogi
12)Present favorite duelist? Katsuya Jonouchi
13)Favorite minor character? Mako Tsunami (Since I don't know his sub name, sadly.)
14)Best Dueling Moment? Appearance of the Flame Knight.
15)Favorite Episode up till now? Otogi and Honda breakin' down the wall in the NoA arc
16)Second favorite? Any non-gaming blimp scenes...awww...they're all so cute and domestic together!
17)Episode you never wanna see again? The first one. And anything with Malik-face-twisting in it.
18)If you had to pick one episode to watch over and over,which would it be? Sweaty boypiles? *snicker* No. Eppy where Jonouchi drives the truck and nearly kills Ryuuji. Somebody has to throw him in a rollover accident before he breaks out of his eternal cool? *snirk*
19)Favorite Card that's not a real card? You mean...they made stuff up? I don't know any. So I'll use the one I created in my baaad Mary-Sue days - The Flame Unicorn. Yes. Jonouchi fetish. I'm SO sorry...
20)Favorite card that you own? Precious Metal Valkyrie, and the Thunder Dragon
21)Is there anything you'd change if you were able to (about the anime?) Give people less cliched lines, cut the 'friendship' crap and give Anzu a real character, and of course, throw yaoi into the mix and give Shizuka a REAL challenge - how to catch the attention of two boys who're nuts for one another's butts.
22)Current Opinion of the anime? Meh. I like the fanfiction better. ~_~