Drugs, movies, and the writers strike.

[wednes]

Kids love marijuana...still. I find articles like this both infuriating and sad. Kids are starting with drugs younger and younger. Why? Are they as goddamn miserable as I was when I started (I started with alcohol, and didn't smoke weed until college, but I drank a LOT)? I sure hope not. I guess I just find it sad that eighth and ninth graders find it necessary to use drugs. Does that make me a hypocrite? I don't think so, just a sad Wednes. I feel like nobody is giving kids proper information about drugs, so they don't learn the difference between things like pot and drinking (which are still pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing) and pain killers and huffing, which will fucking kill you if you aren't really careful. Also, where are teenagers getting Vicodin and Oxycontin in the first place?!?

My friend bought Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for me yesterday. I just have to go pick it up. There are quite a few DVD's I'll be needing, including LOST season 3, Simpsons Movie, and Rob Zombie's Halloween. I'm hoping I'll like it more the next time I see it. I'm also thinking of picking up the directors cut of 1408. It has to be the directors cut though, because the theatrical version has a terrible, stupid ending.

TV has started to suck really badly since the writers strike. Not only can I not have Daily Show and Colbert, but H can't even have Bionic Woman. Everything is being replaced with game shows or "reality" TV--which I always knew didn't actually have writers. It almost makes me want to be a scab.

I've come to a conclusion about this whole LJ kerfluffle. I really, honestly, for realsies don't care about people flagging accounts. It all sounds like some kind of masturbatory party for soccer moms and other won't somebody please think of the children types with nothing better to do than trying to censor the internets. Of course, the policies are hysterical, unclear, and pretty stupid. But that doesn't really affect me. I guess in the end I don't care that much; even though I get the feeling I'm supposed to be outraged and yelling about free speech and adult content. Kids shouldn't be reading porn online, nor should they be posting naked pics of themselves. And face it, furry and Harry Potter fanfic usually isn't very good. Maybe somebody can tell me what there is to be so upset about???

Anywhoo, I'm off to work, two hours early.
I guess I'm just a sucker for punishment.

Comments

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

Well regarding the Adult Content thing.

If you log out and check your flist and you have folks on there who've set their journals to Adult Concepts or whatever but are still posting publicly, this is what you would see: a cut tag for every post they make, regardless of content, that warns it might contain adult content. This lj-cut is auto-generated, NOT by the user. When you click on that tag you get a screen that makes you click whether or not you're of age. Then you get to see the full post ... it takes you PAST any cut tags the users themselves may have set up, so you don't see them.

What this means is if the subject title of the post didn't manage to specify just what content you'd be seeing (very unlikely - there's not enough room) you won't know what you're getting into until you are already there. It could be a knitting pattern or it could be a full frontal nudity photo.

In the normal way of things we know what's coming because any users who've been around any length of time and post longish stuff or potentially NSFW stuff will put it behind LJ cuts prefaced by a brief but informative explanation of what you'll find, meaning we're actually able to make an informed decision.

This new LJ-generated flag/tagging system TAKES AWAY THAT INFORMATION. Visitors are no longer able to make an informed decision about what we might possibly be viewing, not with so many people setting their journals fully to Adult Concepts "to be safe" and therefore hiding away "Happy Chanukah" and other innocuous posts along with whatever might be legitimately inappropriate for kids.

Also - it doesn't keep kids out; it just gives LJ more ass coverage, because while kids can see stuff with a few clicks, they have to "lie" to get there. Now, I don't mind THAT. I can see that being a good business precaution for LJ to take. I do very much mind this setup taking away informed consent from any viewer who either is not logged in (some people can read LJ from work but can not log in) or who doesn't have an LJ account but likes to come by and read stuff. Anyone can read posts at Blogspot without having their own account and without having to click through age verification screens.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how unwieldy, time-consuming, and extremely frustrating - not to mention dangerous in workplaces - it would be, navigating LJ through a mass of obstructive age-verification pages that tell you NOTHING about what the entry you're trying to access might be about.

Not everyone will decide to set their journal to Adult whatever, but I noticed when logged out that a great majority of people on my f'list had done so, and if I'd been a new visitor, dealing with this would have turned me right off of LJ immediately.

I think it's imperative for SUP/LJ to find some way to make their new auto cuts compatible with user-generated cuts (and secondary to them) so readers can actually make a choice as to what they'd be clicking through, or not clicking through, to read/view.

Also, setting one's journal or entries to one of these Adult thingys is an entirely personal choice, not a rule, but I know a lot of people were scared they'd get in trouble if they didn't do it. That's not the case. Also, hitting the flag button on other people's stuff doesn't do anything other than take the flagger to an official complaint page where they have to make their complaint, and then if enough people make the same complaint, it will be reviewed. It doesn't actually do a *thing* to that person's entry ... another thing people were freaked out about. Because this whole thing wasn't explained well the first time. Tch.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that explanation. It still sounds like so much posturing to me. ;-[

I can see where that would be really annoying for those who can't log in. I thought people were just upset about the flagging, I didn't really realize there was so much automatic lj cutting going on. That's too bad. People must be realy hysterical about such things.

Too bad really. I'm going to keep my journal here, but I don't know that I will pay for it for much longer, as it just seems like they don't give a shit about paid users and would much rather cowtow to parents or whomever freaking out about "adult content."

I'm all for keeping kids away from objectionable material, it just seems like there has to be a better way to go about it than cutting everyone and everything "adult."

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

Everyone also has the option to set only specific entries to "Adult Concepts" or "Adult Content," rather than making it a global journal setting. But then of course that generates the unhelpful kind of cut tag. I don't know if a user is able to then go back in and edit the cut tag wording to something actually helpful ... I doubt it ... but maybe I should play around and check. Just out of curiosity, because I have no plans to use these new annoyances on my journal.

The new owners do seem a LOT more interested in making LJ userfriendly than SixApart was - and they've already made some user-suggested changes that are promising. The changeover will take a while though.

I think an unpaid journal would be a lot less pleasant to have around here, what with all the advertising and losing some capabilities. I had actually (after much mental waffling) renewed my paid account for a year right before the flagging thing and sale to SUP happened!

[ladybutterfly74.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I was less than thrilled with the ending of 1408 myself...I want the directors cut too.

/ random comment.

lol!!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll wait a while and see how I like the new owners. I would hate to lose all my userpics...

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I actually saw the DC the first time I saw the movie. When I heard people talking about how bad it sucked, I thought they were mental. Then I realized that they had seen a totally different, suckier ending.