Livejournal advisory board elections

[sholio]

LJ is holding elections for a user representative to represent us (the userbase) on LJ's advisory board. I'm pretty apathetic about such things. Well, make that very apathetic. I'd heard about the election via my friendslist, but I wasn't sure if I was going to vote, since I don't know anything about any of the candidates, and I really wasn't sure how much difference it actually makes who's on the board.

However. The winner is going to be representing us. Who do we **NOT** want to represent us? jameth.

jameth, the leading candidate until word of his asshattery started getting out, has essentially mobilized an army of trolls who go around attacking dissenting journals. Want to see an example? Here's an example from my own flist. The OP made a small PSA post informing her readers that jameth's supporters were using rapidly-flashing "Seizure the Moment" campaign icons, potentially exposing any susceptible individual who sees the icons to a seizure or migraine trigger on purpose. (She also linked to a recent Wired article on a horrifying case in which hackers defaced an epilepsy support board with flashing images and did literally trigger seizures in some of those who visited. Which is assault. Even my hardcore Libertarian husband agrees that it's assault and they need to find the little shits who did it and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. I'm not saying that someone using a flashing joke icon is necessarily in the same category ... depending, of course, on what they do with it. And wait, there's more!)

If you look at the comments to rydra_wong's post, you can see what happened. First round is people on her flist commenting that they're glad she posted it (including me). THEN someone brought up her name over in jameth's LJ, and his followers descended on her en masse. Complete with flashing icons, personal attacks and 200+ comment troll threads. And jameth himself cheerfully joins in.

When called on his supporters' behavior jameth's response was, first, "What post?" (a post he'd already commented on) and then, when it was pointed out to him, "She should learn how to control her journal's content; I'm not going to police people about their user icons" followed by a string of denials that he has any control over the situation at all.

Riiiiiight. Because having your followers and friends harass other LJ users in your name isn't something that concerns you at all.

This is also a guy who, when another candidate overtakes him, posts unfounded allegations of sockpuppet voting. He and his followers repeatedly insult fans and fandom -- this is one teeny example, but you can find them in pretty much any thread on his LJ. Actually, I have yet to see a SINGLE thread on his LJ that isn't full of trolling and namecalling on the part of Jameth and his friends. Poking through his userinfo reveals membership in such tasteful LJ comms as rape_an_ljer and kill_the_pope. Looking through the journals of his friends, supporters and stumpers is appalling -- it's true that it's not entirely fair to judge a person by their friends, but if your friends include a guy who admits to having unprotected sex with partners uninformed about his HIV-positive status and someone who spews this appalling anti-Semitic drivel, on top of everything else ... GOD.

Please do not let this jerk represent us.

Which leaves the question, who should you vote for, then? So far, among the other candidates, legomymalfoy has risen to the top. I have no personal knowledge of any of the candidates, but legomymalfoy is apparently known and respected in fandom; here is an endorsement of her by Synecdochic. Right now I'm happy to throw my support to a fandom-positive candidate, well spoken for, who seems to have a good chance of winning, and it IS possible to change your vote after-the-fact if new information comes to light. For a general roundup post with links to posts of interest to fannish voters, here is a good one and I also recommend looking through the posts at http://del.icio.us/metafandom. One final link: all the candidates' campaign statements at fandom_votes.

Once again, you can vote here. If you want to change your vote later, do it here. And if you feel like spreading the word, please do so!

EDIT: And one more set of links, explaining why it's not a good idea to vote for the same candidate in all three slots! penknife has an excellent explanation here, with some clarification here and a more detailed explanation in the comments. Basically, the way that the voting poll displays the totals is kind of misleading, because those lower-tier tallies are not being counted as such. The second and third-place votes will ONLY be counted if your top candidate is eliminated, in which case your (and only your) vote will switch to your next selection. Voting for the same person in all three slots is the same as leaving your 2nd and 3rd slots blank, because if your top candidate washes out, then your vote can't possibly move up a slot -- the only candidate you voted for is gone!

Edit2, son of edit: the links to Rydra's above post are now locked because of, oh hi, massive and abusive trolling, and who can blame her for doing so. But if you want to see jameth's supporters trolling others, here and here are a few of many examples I'm seeing. Basically, if someone criticizes their candidate, they turn up en masse to shut down discussion. And that's total bullshit.

Comments

[meg1742.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this. I would never have known about all this if you hadn't posted. I thank you very much, and I have gone and voted (for people other than jameth).

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome! I'm glad to help.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Thank you for spreading the word.
I, um, think we've already generally shared our opinions on this situation :)

But, by god, I want everyone to know what's going on and vote. I didn't pay much attention to the election at first because, yes, I'm not sure this position will actually mean much but I do know it won't mean anything with representation like that.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*g* Yeah, we've discussed this ...

In general, I'm not sure how much difference the position can actually make. But having someone in there with a large, trollish and very unpleasant flist, who sees absolutely nothing wrong with users actively harassing other users, could be worse than nothing.

[sgatazmy.livejournal.com]

You convinced me to vote.

[sgatazmy.livejournal.com]

BTW, I finally sent you're package. :)

[naye]

Oh, excellent post! I got clued in about the whole thing through Metafandom, and I wasn't going to care either, but then I saw jameth... Have voted, now. If you want other fandom people, I know rm is one, and vichan another. Apparently it's a good idea to actually vote for three different people, and not just the one three times.

I hope you don't mind if I link this! I don't think I could say it better myself, so - do you mind if I cut & paste a bit from your post? If I make one of my own, I mean. Haven't decided quite yet...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Oh, please feel free to link and/or quote!

Apparently it's a good idea to actually vote for three different people, and not just the one three times.

Yes, yes, yes. If your top candidate is eliminated, your vote will go to your second choice, and if they wash out too, then it goes to your third choice. This means that if you vote for a different candidate in all three spots, you triple your chances of having your vote actually count in the end! The poll is a little misleading because the status bars for the 2nd and 3rd place candidates mean nothing. Voting for the same person in all three places would just mean that if your top candidate washes out, your vote is not counted at all! You may as well leave the other slots blank. There's a good post around somewhere that explains it; I should link to it, because I'm one of those who was very confused by the voting process and had to do some reading to understand it.

[trystings.livejournal.com]

Good lord, the responses to rydra_wong's posts! Are these people for real? I wasn't going to vote - I didn't know I could vote (can I? Not a paid journal), but I will make it my personal goal NOT to vote for such a jerk.

Thanks for making us aware of this.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to be able to help. The behavior in that thread was just *appalling*, and if it's happened in this one place that I know about, based on one small mention of her journal in his LJ, I have no doubt that other people are probably having similar problems elsewhere.

And I'm pretty sure anyone can vote, including free journals.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I went to vote yesterday following Synecdochic's post, and just from scrolling through Jameth's LJ and the attitude of his campaigners on the voting page, I knew he was the last one I'd vote for (not to mention the sockpuppet accusation).

I hadn't seen that link to weev's journal, though. Wow.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen that link to weev's journal, though. Wow.

His journal is hateful and horrifying. Just skimming a few posts (and the comments, god, the comments) made me want to scrub out my brain. Anyone who has such a person friended is not someone I want in any position of authority.

[trishkafibble.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the post--I'm glad to have anything at all to do with keeping the horrid few from ruining things for all the rest! RM and Vichan, whom Naye mentioned, are both doing quite well as runners-up, and both seem pretty sound in their outlook and goals, based on what I saw on their own pages. A couple of the others I checked out at random (jj_maccrimmon and qfemale) seemed to have pretty good qualifications, as well--I'm glad to see that there are some good candidates outside of fandom, too. Seems hopeful for the LJ future, maybe....

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help! I would hate to see people win an election by going around LJ attacking anyone who disagrees with them like rabid hyenas.

[angw.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about this but have now voted. Thanks for the info.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Glad to help!

[julieannie.livejournal.com]

What is your stance on Legomymalfoy's seizure-inducing icon seen here (http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=legomymalfoy)?

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

For the record -- I used to mod at a high-traffic fan board. When I'd moderate touchy discussions over there, the very definition of "troll" was a stranger who shows up in a discussion out of nowhere, without introducing themselves, does not explain how s/he found this thread or why s/he is here, asks leading questions that are clearly designed to pick a fight, and has been seen exhibiting the same behavior in similar discussions in the recent past. And they were banned, as you have just been.

I'm normally more lenient, but given the history that Jameth's supporters have of trolling people who disagree with them, and considering some of the recent discussions I've seen, I will be modding this discussion with a touchy trigger finger and expecting everyone in it to abide by common message board courtesy -- i.e. if the mod (me) doesn't know you, introduce yourself first and be on your best behavior. And actually, I do feel kinda bad for hitting you with the banhammer right off the bat, because generally from what I've seen, you seem like a fairly reasonable person. But given my experience in other discussions over the last couple of days, I'm not taking chances on having this blow up on myself and my friends.

As for my stance on legomymalfoy's flashing icon, it is not pointedly mocking epilepsy (like the "seizure" icons), not rapidly flashing like the "seizure" icons, and, most importantly, it's not being deliberately deployed against an epileptic person. That last is the one that makes the biggest difference for me in this case.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Yuck, no offense but I feel dirty after reading this stuff. (not your comments and poor rydrawong :() It's like being at school and bringing back bad memories of the bullying that I went through. Because that's what it is. Bullying!
I just can't..we're supposed to be adults here, aren't we?
I went back and changed my vote, luckily I hadn't voted for him. (I won't even use his name) I sends you a hug (which I don't do very often) because I think you need it :)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for voting! And yes, I completely agree. It IS bullying. These jerks are going around to dissenting journals and stirring up the waters, trying to intimidate anyone who disagrees with them. It's total grade-school behavior and, as someone who spends a lot of my time on LJ, I refuse to tolerate that kind of behavior in MY community.

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Um... wow. I've seen this crop up on aelfgyfu_mead's journal, but I was a little frightened on venturing into troll territory. That kind of behavior is just appalling. I honestly just don't get these kind of people, and hopefully that's a good thing.

I really wasn't going to vote, but I think I might now. Thanks for the informative post!

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I hope you do vote, if only because I *really* hate to see someone win using these underhanded tactics! I don't get political very often, but this has really got me ready to work to see a different candidate win.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

*hangs head* I already voted for him. On the first day. Actually, I voted for cambler but for some reason I had seen his banner and thought it 'cute' and threw the fuck a bone. Intending to only vote one, I was surprised to see three options, so I just voted for any name I 'remembered'.

However, for shits and giggles I'll do a "jameth is a fagboy do not vote for dis fagboyz" post and invite the trolls.

I eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat eat trolls for lunch!

[cirisse.livejournal.com]

you can change your vote!

[bell]

There's been a bunch of posts on my flist advocating that the fans vote, and this one (via coffeeandink, I believe) was the straw that broke the camel's back. I've voted for legomymalfoy and a couple other fandom-friendly representatives.

So, I guess this is thanks?

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I'm very glad to have helped, and thank you for voting. :)

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

I've seen this linked by many wonderful people, and you are awesome and wonderful for compiling this. I was reading about LMM's icon and ponies, and this here is like the pony for our camp.

I posted on the topic, but wasn't quite bold enough to put names in.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you so much for this! I actually dithered for a while about posting this, worrying about an influx of trolls (which, thankfully, does not seem to have happened) and then I realized that that's exactly *why* it needed to be posted. They should not be able to use fear and intimidation to silence anyone who speaks up against them. Anyway, thank you very much.

[(Anonymous)]

http://thekamisama.livejournal.com/367324.html

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Not just a troll, but a cowardly one at that! How special.

I don't know you....

[tolkiencub.livejournal.com]

...nor do I know your friend whose link to this article in HER journal pointed me here, but you have my complete support (and rydra_wong has my utmost sympathy)

I was so glad when that jackass moved to SF and away from Seattle; unfortunately, he left his "Jackass-the-Movie"-type friends behind, and they're poisonous, just like you say.

Troll. Massive troll. Who then hides behind faux-innocent eyes and murmurs, "Who, me?"

Re: I don't know you....

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you stopped by to comment. :)

I've heard from a few people who've had the misfortune to encounter this bunch elsewhere. I wish they'd find something better to do than torment others.

And that fake-innocent act -- oh my god, the hypocrisy.

[cleothemuse.livejournal.com]

Wasn't going to vote... voted now. I have no tolerance for people who are deliberately stupid.

Re: I don't know you....

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*cheers* I'm glad you did! And I'm thrilled to see that the jerks lost. I hate to see people win anything by being nasty to others.

Wandering in via elionwyr

[eruditeviking.livejournal.com]

It might be pointed out that obnoxious, bright, repeatedly flashy images also affect those of us who have migraines. Certainly not the level that an epileptic seizure, but going into a full blown migraine because of a light sensitive trigger? Sucks!

I've seen Jameth's supporters in action. Trying to talk to them intelligently usually results in them getting frustrated and throwing "Butthurt" and "Fail" images at you en-masse. Because, you know that's how you win an argument. I don't find them funny, but at the same time I find the situation funny. Particularly since they like to accuse any of us who don't find LULZ funny of not having a sense of humor. Me? I like my humor to be a little more sophisticated than school-yard level.

Re: Wandering in via elionwyr

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Just came back to this thread and realized that I hadn't answered this comment! (Sorry!) And thank you very much for the migraine info; I don't personally suffer but I know people who do, and inflicting that on someone deliberately? That's assault any way you look at it.

I've since heard from people who know Jameth and/or some of his friends in real life, and apparently they are just as unpleasant as you'd think they would be. I'm just very, very glad that enough people spoke up against them that they didn't win with their nasty antics and trolling.

Thank you for stopping by!