alexisjane

It would be really helpful, if someone who actually knows the section of law mentioned in the new TOS posted to say what the new TOS really means. I have no idea what might result, but the new TOS states that Russian laws now rule and I have a really bad feeling about things. For example, there is this one ominous and bolded part in the new TOS (8.4) that for popular communities, "Community (the Community’s page) within 24 hours, the Community Owner shall be subject to Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-FЗ if more than three thousand Internet users access". Also, people who made comments in communities are according to 8.5 "subsidiarily liable in respect of Community Supervisor’ actions" whatever the heck that means. 9.1.3 says to mark as adult content everything that estimated by the Russian law is not suitable for kids. I don't much about them laws, but I do know that this means all same-sex content regardless of nature of the content (i.e. not just NC-17 or PG-13).

So I think that based on the above especially community owners really need to sit down and consider their option on what to do now. Especially owners of fic communities where people have posted fic in the community or ones that have unlabeled adult content (esp. same-sex), really need to make decisions based on the current incomplete information both to protect themselves and the people who have commented there. One specific example is the kink memes. Those could be lost soon and whatever the TOS mean, it could be also not good for the comm owner. It would probably not be a bad idea to save your absolute favorites from them.

If things start to go down, they may go down quickly as people may opt to be on the safer side and f-lock/delete/disappear. I urge everyone to consider the nature and extent of the content they have posted in their personal LJ/communities they own. To have at least some breathing room and not lose things dear to them/others, I recommend opening a dreamwidth account now and importing all your entries there. The process might take a bit time if many people are importing at the same time, but it is very simple to do and runs in the background after you tell it which parts of your LJ stuff you want to import (entries, comments(!), tags etc.). For communities, the community owner has to create a new comm at dreamwidth and then they can also import the community from LJ. Very simple but from what I see you need have accepted the new TOS for the import process to be able to verify your lj credentials. You can also automatically cross-post your entries from dw to lj and run both of them in parallel. The problem is that some communities have been abandoned and the owners are not around to import them. If you know these kind of communities, contact the people running them ask them to consider importing the content to dreamwidth.

Back things up somehow (dreamwidth, LJ export tool whatever) if you don't want to lose them, and if possible, grab at least your top five fave fics/posts you know are not available outside LJ. Backing up is always a smart thing to do, and I hope that this is not needed, but if it is, at least your content will not be lost. Don't fiddle too much with the style settings or anything that can be straightened out later. Rebuild your friend network the best you can, so there will be ways to get the word out where you are and what is going on. Spread the word that the TOS situation should be monitored carefully and the time to act with back ups is right now. Consider that communities that have become large databases of information (like spnstoryfinders, spn_j2_bigbang or the kink memes) might be gone soon if not for the new TOS then for people reacting to the TOS.

Maybe a new dw comm could be helpful to inform fannish people of their options, get people in contact with LJ community owners, and organize campaigns to back up content. Or maybe there already is one in which case, please link me. I don't want to panic anyone but just to recommend people to be prepared and ready to move to another platform if we suddenly receive a word that it is the absolute best thing to do. In that case we can then leave in organized fashion. Personally, I have imported my LJ (with comments) to DW, exported my LJ entries as XML using the export tool, imported also spnematography to dw (under the same name), exported those entries as csv files, and I will try to figure out what more to do after I get back from work.

I am at dreamwidth and AO3 under this same username and over at twitter as underpurplesky. Feel free to friend me and/or leave me your information so I can friend you if I already haven't. I might be moving, but I am not leaving the fandom.