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LJ Elections
I'm going to take a moment, a very brief moment, from squeeing over how adorable and perfect my new nephew is to talk about the LJ election for the user position on the Advisory Board.
I know that a lot of people's flists have been filled with news about it: people endorsing different candidates, wank over what's going on and people telling you whom not to vote for. I was hesitant on making a similar post, but the thing is, I think this is important.
Let me explain. I'm one of the skeptical people who really question how much power this position will hold with LJ. I definitely think that the things people campaigning are promising are probably out of their reach. That said, I still think it's important for people to *try*.
I'm one of the people who tried to leave LJ after Boldthrough, but just wasn't able to do it, because the rest of fandom had dug their heels in and eventually LJ became my main journal (even though I still cross post everything). I *know* I'm not the only person on my flist who was/is annoyed over what LJ did, but the thing is, we have no right to sit here and complain that we aren't being treated fairly if we don't take the chance to be heard when LJ gives us one. Maybe I will be completely surprised and LJ will listen to the Advisory Board more in the future, and if they do, won't we, as a whole feel stupid if it's one of the joke runners who's in that position?
Regardless, we can't, as a whole, decide to put all out eggs in one basket, and not try to protect that basket if given a chance. So please, please *please*, take the time to vote.
Since I feel so strongly about this, I actually spent last Saturday afternoon, reading through all the platform posts left by the candidates.
I voted before reading how the rest of fandom was voting, and I gotta say, I think a lot of qualified people are being overlooked. I didn't keep my reading down to just those "in fandom" and other than being an IJ user and knowing of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
squeaky19 I don't know any of the candidates outside of the election campaign.
Squeaky19
squeaky19 got my first vote. I've dealt with him over on IJ, and I know how committed he is to communicating what is going on to the users. Something LJ is really horrible at. He's also the one going in there, in my opinion with the best balance of understanding what it's going to be like, and still having enthusiasm for it.
I think he'll be great for LJ, but I've got to admit, I also think his time on the board will be great for IJ. Not just because he's fighting for more of LJ to be open source, but because I think it'll help him learn for the future of IJ when it is larger. So if you're over on IJ, but still have an LJ account, I'd suggest using it to vote forsqueaky19
Vichan
Of all the "fandom" people running, I likevichan best.
I like that she has experience sitting on boards, and working to make things happen in the business world because the LJ Advisory Board isn't going to be like fandom, it's being put on by a business.
I like her platform. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but in how she described fandoms response to silence for LJ, really makes me feel that she'll be able to it explain to LJ. Fandom isn't a normal userbase; she understands that and I think she can convince LJ of that as well.
I like that she uses LJ for more than just fandom because while fandom is a huge presence on LJ, it's not the only presence, and I would hate to think that others were being left out.
Qfemale
I really like the changes she brings up, more than just communication as many of the fandom people bring up. Take another look at the difference between different account levels. Get rid of the tag limit (or, oh god, *please* let us use more than one tag to search by! That's not part of her platform, but I'd really like to see that happen). Prioritize changes based on their impact rather than just their ease.
I like that she's part of fandom, but didn't make that involvement her entire platform.
JJ-Maccrimmon
I like thatjj_maccrimmon has international exposure. As a non-American, I know I can find it frustrating that some people don't seem to realize that the internet isn't American, and that different countries have different needs.
I like the technical suggestions she has, not many people talked about technical aspects in their platforms and I'd really like to see something be changed about the rules regarding community moderators.qfemale also mentioned this one in their platform, but I've got to agree, the LJ Gallery system kind of sucks.
I also think she goes in with a decent expectation on what to expect from LJ.
I didn't vote for the two people,jameth and , leading in the polls right now, here's why:
Jameth
jameth has a history of wank. I just... don't want someone with that kind of headache, especially if we have to fight to be respected with LJ. I've seen a lot of wank in this campaign coming from jameth I think there's probably been a lot coming from legomymalfoys side too, but most of the sources on my flist linking to wank are coming to me with a pro legomymalfoy bias, so I haven't seen as much of it. I think too, a lot of jameths supporters are in it for the lolz, which doesn't bode well either.
Legomymalfoy
I won't actually be upset iflegomymalfoy is elected, which is looking good, I actually supported her nomination in the earlier rounds. Much of her platform is good, I just don't feel she's the strongest fandom representative in the group, and two, I'm slightly concerned about her ties to the LJ Abuse team and her actions during Strikethrough. She was one of the abuse team members shutting down journals during Strikethrough and while she has said, and I believe her, that it wasn't an easy decision for her, she decided to stay on the abuse team. She also cannot tell us about her reasons for staying on the team because of non-disclosure agreements, and while I don't want to encourage her to break her contract, I don't feel all that confident in the fact that she will give into LJ when they tell her to do something without telling us why she's following through. That contradicts her platform point of being more open.
I know that a lot of people's flists have been filled with news about it: people endorsing different candidates, wank over what's going on and people telling you whom not to vote for. I was hesitant on making a similar post, but the thing is, I think this is important.
Let me explain. I'm one of the skeptical people who really question how much power this position will hold with LJ. I definitely think that the things people campaigning are promising are probably out of their reach. That said, I still think it's important for people to *try*.
I'm one of the people who tried to leave LJ after Boldthrough, but just wasn't able to do it, because the rest of fandom had dug their heels in and eventually LJ became my main journal (even though I still cross post everything). I *know* I'm not the only person on my flist who was/is annoyed over what LJ did, but the thing is, we have no right to sit here and complain that we aren't being treated fairly if we don't take the chance to be heard when LJ gives us one. Maybe I will be completely surprised and LJ will listen to the Advisory Board more in the future, and if they do, won't we, as a whole feel stupid if it's one of the joke runners who's in that position?
Regardless, we can't, as a whole, decide to put all out eggs in one basket, and not try to protect that basket if given a chance. So please, please *please*, take the time to vote.
Since I feel so strongly about this, I actually spent last Saturday afternoon, reading through all the platform posts left by the candidates.
I voted before reading how the rest of fandom was voting, and I gotta say, I think a lot of qualified people are being overlooked. I didn't keep my reading down to just those "in fandom" and other than being an IJ user and knowing of
squeaky19 I don't know any of the candidates outside of the election campaign. Squeaky19
squeaky19 got my first vote. I've dealt with him over on IJ, and I know how committed he is to communicating what is going on to the users. Something LJ is really horrible at. He's also the one going in there, in my opinion with the best balance of understanding what it's going to be like, and still having enthusiasm for it. I think he'll be great for LJ, but I've got to admit, I also think his time on the board will be great for IJ. Not just because he's fighting for more of LJ to be open source, but because I think it'll help him learn for the future of IJ when it is larger. So if you're over on IJ, but still have an LJ account, I'd suggest using it to vote for
squeaky19Vichan
Of all the "fandom" people running, I like
vichan best. I like that she has experience sitting on boards, and working to make things happen in the business world because the LJ Advisory Board isn't going to be like fandom, it's being put on by a business.
I like her platform. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but in how she described fandoms response to silence for LJ, really makes me feel that she'll be able to it explain to LJ. Fandom isn't a normal userbase; she understands that and I think she can convince LJ of that as well.
I like that she uses LJ for more than just fandom because while fandom is a huge presence on LJ, it's not the only presence, and I would hate to think that others were being left out.
Qfemale
I really like the changes she brings up, more than just communication as many of the fandom people bring up. Take another look at the difference between different account levels. Get rid of the tag limit (or, oh god, *please* let us use more than one tag to search by! That's not part of her platform, but I'd really like to see that happen). Prioritize changes based on their impact rather than just their ease.
I like that she's part of fandom, but didn't make that involvement her entire platform.
JJ-Maccrimmon
I like that
jj_maccrimmon has international exposure. As a non-American, I know I can find it frustrating that some people don't seem to realize that the internet isn't American, and that different countries have different needs. I like the technical suggestions she has, not many people talked about technical aspects in their platforms and I'd really like to see something be changed about the rules regarding community moderators.
qfemale also mentioned this one in their platform, but I've got to agree, the LJ Gallery system kind of sucks. I also think she goes in with a decent expectation on what to expect from LJ.
I didn't vote for the two people,
jameth and , leading in the polls right now, here's why:Jameth
jameth has a history of wank. I just... don't want someone with that kind of headache, especially if we have to fight to be respected with LJ. I've seen a lot of wank in this campaign coming from jameth I think there's probably been a lot coming from legomymalfoys side too, but most of the sources on my flist linking to wank are coming to me with a pro legomymalfoy bias, so I haven't seen as much of it. I think too, a lot of jameths supporters are in it for the lolz, which doesn't bode well either.Legomymalfoy
I won't actually be upset if
legomymalfoy is elected, which is looking good, I actually supported her nomination in the earlier rounds. Much of her platform is good, I just don't feel she's the strongest fandom representative in the group, and two, I'm slightly concerned about her ties to the LJ Abuse team and her actions during